Vladimir Putin

President of the Russian Federation

"We have no desire to create problems for the new Ukrainian government, but to tolerate a situation in which people living in the territory of these Donetsk and Luhansk republics are generally deprived of any civil rights, this is already crossing the line from the point of view of human rights."

The Donbas area in Putin’s statement is under Russian control, according to international authorities – following Russia’s covert push to create separate “republics” Also, a Russian passport is no guarantee of civil rights.

Ramzan Kadyrov

head of Chechnya

“The U.S. claims that its armed forces are fighting terrorism and drug trafficking in that country (Afghanistan). But UN data says otherwise. Since the beginning of this year alone, around 400 civilians have died through the fault of the U.S. troops and the forces of official Kabul enlisted by them. That is significantly more than the deaths at the hands of the Taliban, to whom were attributed 227 victims.”

The latest UN report on Afghanistan shows an overall increase in civilian casualties by pro-government forces. However, attributing all the civilian deaths at the hands of pro-government forces to the U.S. military is wrong. U.S. forces are part of an international coalition of 39 nations.

After a Lithuanian court sentenced 67 former Soviet military officers for crimes against humanity in a failed January 1991 crackdown on the country’s pro-democracy drive, Russia has lashed out at the “illegal act,” although the claim fails under international law and historical circumstances.

Tatiana Golikova

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister

“In 2005, our mortality rate was 16.1 per 100,000 people. We managed to reduce it by 23%... We have reduced mortality from cardiovascular diseases by 37%, from road accidents – by 54.5%, from tuberculosis – by four times.”

While the overall mortality rate in Russia has decreased in the last 14 years, still Russia's ranks in comparison with global indicators are higher than average. Moreover, the prognosis for the next 15 years are pessimistic.

Sergey Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister

“The reason for the Libyan crisis lies in NATO’s actions in 2011. Precisely since that time, Libya has turned into a failed state and a ’black hole,’ through which terrorists, the smuggling of weapons, go south, and to the north - flows of illegal migrants.”

While there are varying opinions on the legality and effect of NATO’s intervention in Libya, NATO was not the cause of the crisis in Libya. NATO’s Operation Unified Protector was launched in response to a UN resolution regarding the ongoing civil war there.

Apart from the rhetoric of a former CIA director, the U.S. Justice Department confirmed in writing that Snowden never faced capital punishment. Lavrov falsely connects the Magnitsky Act to the Snowden affair.

Grigory Karasin

Russian Deputy Minister of the Foreign Affairs

“Certainly, the creation of explicit complexities for citizens' expression of their will casts a shadow on the entire electoral process. Inevitably, questions arise to the authorities, who are thus trying to influence the outcome of the vote."

Recognized international elections monitors such as those of the OSCE declared the election to be fair and competitive. Ukrainian citizens in Russian-occupied Donbas were prevented from voting by local authorities, not the Kyiv government.

TASS

Russian state-owned news agency

"On March 27, the Federal Security Service in cooperation with the Russian Interior Ministry and the Federal National Guard Troops Service foiled the activities of a cell of the Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami international terror group during a special operation in Crimea and detained 20 people from among its chieftains and ordinary members,’ the FSB stressed.”

Russia's Foreign Ministry

Press Statement

“The Autonomous Province of Kosovo was forcibly separated from the rest of the country under the propagandistic pretext of thwarting the allegedly unfolding ‘humanitarian disaster.' In reality NATO became a trigger for a real human tragedy, a smokescreen hiding the anti-Serb ethnic cleansing that caused over 200,000 non-Albanians to leave their homes.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry flips the facts about NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. Serbian security forces were killing and expelling Kosovo Albanian civilians before the start of Operation Allied Force. The ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians accelerated during the NATO air strikes.

Vladimir Solovyov

State TV Host

“Speaking of telephone justice in Russia, it used to be like that here. The current situation must be assessed in detail … If we study the percentage of verdicts and serious cases, we’ll discover that it’s not an accident that Russia has the lowest prison population in the entire history of our state, 400,000 people or something like that. America has the highest, by the way.”

TV host Vladimir Solovyov has used U.S. efforts to provide transparency on corruption under Putin to criticize the U.S. prison system. While he is right that the raw numbers paint the U.S. prison system in a dim light, his claims regarding the end of “telephone justice” in Russia are unclear.

Dmitry Kravchenko

Head of the missionary department of the Ekaterinodar and Kuban dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church

“They begin with English lessons. These guys, as a rule, come from the United States; they are native speakers, which is how they attract, but after a few lectures they start including some religious topics in their texts.”

Kravchenko’s claim is the opposite of what Russian authorities have accused the two Americans of doing. The Mormons legally entered Russia for “religious activities” but are accused of giving English language lessons instead. Experts said these accusations are fabricated.

Maria Zakharova

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman

“Our country has repeatedly historically reaffirmed its role as a state that is the guarantor of stability and security, a party that brings peace, not aggression. The Second World War and the role of the Soviet Union in it are a global example of this.”

The Soviet role in World War II is part of the historical record and predates the current Russian Federation. More recent history shows Russia not only as destabilizing influence in Europe but an occupying power in Crimea and questionable initiatives in Syria and Africa.